Dead or Alive 5: Last Round

Dead or Alive 5

www.the-game-domain.com

Published:10:16Thursday 05 March 2015

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“It’s all about the boobs, about the boobs, no fighting!”

Sorry, Meghan Trainer isn’t featured in Dead or Alive 5: Last Round but I can’t help singing this in my head when playing it. The latest version of the latest entry in Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo’s patent fighting series is out now for all consoles but is the extras all worth paying for it all over again?

Last Round’s solo campaign is no more than a series of single round fights chained together by some pretty nifty and well-made cut scenes. Basically, the new owners of DOATEC are kicking of a new Dead or Alive tournament and we explore all the main characters motives for entering. It’s long and drawn out but ultimately forgettable although it’s always nice to see the femme fatales of the series up close. All 32 characters from Dead or Alive 5: Ultimate are here including guest characters from the Virtua Fighter series, DLC characters and 2 brand new characters Honoka and Raidou which fans will recognise as the boss of the first DOA.

Last Round is chock full of content to keep your thumbs sore. Single and Tag Versus battles on and offline, the aforementioned story mode, training and tutorial and more and each fighter has their own particular fighting style. The special thing about Dead or Alive 5 aside from the bouncies is its button bashing discouraging gameplay. Remember Eddy Gordo from Tekken? Well there is no one like him in DOA thankfully. Players have to think about which moves they want to unleash, I seriously advise practicing in the Training and tutorial modes to get to grips with each character as the Bruce Lee-esque Jan Lee plays way differently than big bad wrestler Bass or his voluptuous daughter Tina. The fast and frantic fighting is glorious! Kicking snot nosed Eliot in the chops feels meaty and satisfying as MMA fighter Lisa and piss head Brad Wong fights as if he just had an all-day bender. The new characters Honoka and Raidou don’t really bring anything exciting to the already impressive roster. Raidou feels like a robotic Heihachi but playing him gives you no real advantage over your opponent as you would think.

Last Round brings 2 new stages too with their own danger zones which DOA has come to be better known for. The original stages from DOA 5 all return so you can still boot some poor soul off the edge of a snowy cliff or off the roof of a tall Pagoda. It’s unreal to pull off these incredible moves but it feels even better when you do it from a Power move! These are super powerful combos that allow you to direct where your opponent gets knocked back too and they look super cool!

On PS4, Last Round looks incredibly polished. Close up, you can literally see the sweat drip on your face, same goes for the environments. The developers have upgraded Last Round as much as humanely possible graphically, so far Dead or Alive 5: Last Round is the best looking fighter available.

Pros

Silky smooth fighting gameplay

Requires more thinking than button mashing to success

The upgraded graphics on current gen look outstanding

Impressive roster with loads of variety

Bouncy bouncy bouncy!

Cons

On tougher difficulty, things can get frustrating as computer loves to juggle

Forgettable story

Summary

Dead or Alive 5: Last Round is one hell of a fighter and makes a blazing debut on current gen consoles. Jam packed with content including 32 characters with loads of costumes and 26 stages makes Last Round worth the expense. Not only does Last Round play fantastic, it looks amazing! It’s all about the boobs, about the boobs, no fighting! (Sorry).

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